Simon Frank
School of Rock
My adventure into record production in China all started in July with a trip to Wal-Mart. My brother Josh felt he needed some extra digestion time after eating his lürou
shaobing (donkey sandwich) before heading back to his internship. Before we knew it, we were walking out of the basement of Wanda Plaza holding 16 disposable raincoats and one electronic keyboard. All for less than RMB 200. The “equipment” was for a show that our band, Hot & Cold, would perform the next week at Sugar Jar, a tiny CD store and occasional performance space in Dashanzi.
Hot & Cold started in 2005 when I was 14 and living in New Delhi. Despite having previously never sung before, my bass-playing brother and I decided to start making sounds after I picked up a faulty megaphone. The only souvenirs of this phase are a few extremely fuzzy recordings and memories of our only performance, when we set up on our balcony and attempted to freak out kids during Halloween.
